Virtus
by Lord Axxingtons
Summary: (Spoilers for ch2.) Ishimaru Kiyotaka has many good points, but tact is not one of them. Discovering Chihiro's secret, he humiliates her, but when he and Mondo work together to make amends, they end up with something bigger than the three of them could have imagined. (OT3 poly fic, trans Chihiro.)
1. Chapter 1

**This fic interprets Chihiro as a trans girl. I wrote it a while ago and have since become less sure if that's how I interpret Chihiro, but here's the fic as it is - no wank please, don't read if you're not a fan of that interpretation!**

She runs her fingers over her collarbones, her delicate ankles. These parts of her, these little details, are hers to cherish when the rest of her body makes her unhappy. She folds her arms and fiddles with her bra strap. Her underwear is strawberry patterned. She hacks out a tiny cough. She isn't ill, but when she panics, she can't catch her breath. She tends to panic a lot when she looks into mirrors.

In her treasured friends she sees the things she lacks, and in the mirror before her she sees a failure. She wants to be a strong, beautiful girl like Sakura, and what she sees before her is a weak, sad little boy dressing up in girls' underwear like a pervert. She holds her chest and wheezes. _Stop looking, Chihiro, just stop looking._  
It is past time to meet for breakfast; she needs to dress.

The rapid flurry of knocks on her door as she pulls on her shirt startles her; its efficiency like the drilling of a woodpecker betraying the visitor. "FUJISAKI-KUN! YOU ARE NOW THREE MINUTES AND NINETEEN SECONDS LATE FOR BREAKFAST! ARE YOU QUITE ALL RIGHT?" Ishimaru practically shrieks through the keyhole.

"I'm fine," she musters quietly, and a cough bursts out of her. Her shirt is only half on, her skirt not at all. If he looked through the keyhole, he could see. Ishimaru would never do such a thing, she tells herself, but he could, he COULD, and she's feeling too dizzy with panic to stand up and get her skirt-

"Fujisaki-kun! Is that you?! I cannot hear you!"  
"Yes, Ishimaru-kun, I'm sorry, I just-" she pauses to take a wheezing breath, "-I woke up late."  
"YOUR VOICE IS VERY FAINT FUJISAKI-KUN ARE YOU ILL OR POSSIBLY INJURED."  
"No!" She doubles over coughing.  
"It is clear you are in bad shape! Do you need my assistance? I have learnt over fourteen methods for breaking down a door cleanly! I ask you to maintain a distance of four feet from the collision area!"  
"Ishimaru-kun, don't-"

He does. Barrelling through the doorway with a kick that must have had surprising muscle behind it, the frenzied Ishimaru Kiyotaka has invaded Chihiro's room. She cowers on the floor. It is obvious. Everything is obvious. They stare at each other for a moment. She starts, quietly, to cry.

Ishimaru seems to have gained the hue and consistency of a beetroot and begins to back out of the doorway. "F-Fujisaki-I-Fujisaki...san... I - I deeply apologise... Had I - had I known you were..."  
For once unable to complete his duty of speaking clearly, he flees.

She remains on the floor for a few further moments, allowing her hiccupy sobs to stop, then slowly finishes getting dressed. She's not sure what for, though. She's done for. Even Ishimaru, who is sweet and kind, will never understand... this.

As she enters the breakfast hall, face neutral, those assembled all scrutinise her with a searching expression that makes her heartbeat rise into a commotion. "So what's this?" Asahina loudly demands. "Did Ishimaru seriously break into your room? That's the worst kind of behaviour! I can't believe it!"  
"I - I was..."  
"F-Fujisaki was having a coughing fit! I! I though perhaps sh-she was in a predicament which required interceding! My judgement was impaired!" Ishimaru is bowing so low his chin nearly scrapes the floor.  
"Apparently," Celes observes cannily, "During that time the two of them got to know each other well enough for Ishimaru to stop using honorifics."

Chihiro turns red, Ishimaru purple, neither of them helping matters. Yamada has stood up, quivering like a jelly, and squeaks "Can it be! Ishimaru-dono saw... THAT!"  
"'That?'" Naegi has to enquire.  
"...The full panties..." Yamada intones, grinning. Ishimaru and Chihiro wear the matching expression of those with a great desire to slide under the table and cease existing forever.

Sakura comes to her rescue. "Enough vulgarity. Let us resume breakfast." she announces in a voice with no room for argument. Chihiro thinks about her favourite coding languages as she manages half a bowl of rice. It's the only way to stop herself from crying.

Mondo can't pretend he isn't extremely curious about what went on, but poor little Fujisaki looks so mortified he knows he can't pry in front of her. Instead, as soon as Ishimaru has put down his soup, Mondo practically drags him out of the room.  
"U-Unhand me, you ruffian!" Ishimaru stutters, as Mondo slams him against the wall inside the boys' toilets.  
"What the hell happened with Fujisaki?" Mondo demands, blocking the escape with his elbow.  
Ishimaru gulps. "I-It's not my place to - Fujisaki-kun was not entirely dressed - I -"  
"So you saw a little girl's underwear and now you feel like a freaky pervert?"  
Ishimaru nods.  
"Well, you should. Fuckin' disgusting, breaking into a girl's room."  
Ishimaru looks close to tears. "I know... I am truly disgraceful! For this, I shall remove my own free time privileges and increase my list of chores!"  
Mondo sighs. "Listen, Ishimaru. You don't get it. You can't make amends by just punishin' yourself, that's not the issue here. It's Fujisaki's feelings you got to account for. Apologise to her properly, for fuck's sake."  
"I- I-"  
"You what, dammit?"

"O-Oowada-kun." Ishimaru steels himself. "There is a further issue. I... I ask you not to disclose this to anyone else, but I don't have a guidebook for this situation, and I'm unsure what action to take. You seem like a sensible man. Perhaps you can advise me."  
"On what?"  
"Fujisaki... Fujisaki-kun is not... Well, Fujisaki-kun doesn't appear to be a girl." Ishimaru claps a hand over his own mouth as soon as he says it.  
"So you're sayin' she's got a dick?"  
"Oowada-kun! I.. Well... Yes."  
Mondo pulls Ishimaru forward by the collar and hisses hotly into his face. "OK, so don't be an ass about it. It's her issue."  
"B-but how am I to address... her?"  
"As a girl, shithead! She obviously wants to be treated like a girl right now, seeing as that's how she introduced herself! God, you're dense as fuck for a guy who's all about manners. Why do you give a fuck what's in her pants, anyway? If you're lookin' to get lucky I wouldn't get your hopes up after that screwup."  
"None of that indecency, Oowada-kun!" Ishimaru slaps him lightly on the pompadour. "But... thank you. I see that I was being disrespectful in my conduct." Ishimaru shifts against the wall but Mondo doesn't seem to be letting up. They are still two inches from each other's noses. Ishimaru's uniform is starting to feel oddly prickly on his skin.  
Mondo gives him a strange look and then the moment ends. "Talk to Fujisaki," Mondo warns him. Ishimaru nods and hastens to the kitchen to do his self-imposed washing-up duty.

It's at times like this when Chihiro reflects that it would be nice if she could think of the other people at Hope's Peak as her friends. She feels a small but insistent instinct beating inside her, that tells her they could all get along, in some other life, maybe. But not in the school of mutual killing, where any one of her classmates could turn on her, and she is so small, and so useless, and so wrapped up in her own strange issues. As she returns to her bedroom she notes that Monobear appears to have already fixed her slightly demolished door - his strange insistence on keeping the school's image pristine must ring true. She's glad Ishimaru wasn't punished for destroying school property, though. After what happened to Enoshima, Chihiro feels that treasuring her friends while they're still alive should be a priority.

She wants to turn to her computer when she's frightened, and so she does. She's aware of Monobear's gaze, but he can't forbid her from writing a programme -it's why she was asked to come here, after all. As she's putting the finishing touches to version 1.0 of a little AI she's calling Alter Ego, a knock comes at the door, making her freeze momentarily.  
"Fujisaki-san?" The voice is indistinct, but it's Ishimaru's. "I... was wondering if I might take a moment to apologise. If you don't mind."

She wants to tell him to go away. She wants to. She doesn't want to have to talk about this. But that's not what someone strong would do, and she should treasure this opportunity to stop things from being weird between the two of them. "Come in," she says hesitantly.

He stands in the doorway rigidly looking flustered, and she feels odd pity. He is very kind, always trying to do right by everyone. "F-Fujisaki-san," he recites, "I humbly apologise for bursting in on you this morning. It was... completely inappropriate."  
She doesn't really know how to reply, so just quietly says "That's all right, it was a misunderstanding." Her voice squeaks on the last syllable.

"And would you... I have been addressing all my new friends as, for example, Fujisaki-kun, in order to establish the bonds of fraternity between us, but, Fujisaki, would you prefer it if I called you Fujisaki-chan?" Ishimaru sort of babbles.

It isn't at all what she expected him to say. She's touched, and feels warmer towards him than she did earlier. She pats the edge of the bed next to where she is perched, and he accordingly stiffly sits down next to her. "I um... Whatever Ishimaru-kun wants to call me is fine. Thank you."

"Would you prefer I took my leave?" He doesn't look at her.  
"Do you want to leave?"  
"Whatever would make you comfortable."  
"I... want you to stay."

She clears her throat once, the sound a low growl that she hates; it foreshadows the fact that she's fifteen, fifteen and growing fast. "Ishimaru-kun, did you tell anyone about... me?"

He pinches the bridge of his nose and looks sincerely regretful. "I cannot lie. I told Oowada Mondo-kun because I was not sure how to address the situation. But he is sworn to secrecy. And he... was very sensible and kind, and made me realise I should not start treating you differently now, Fujisaki-kun."  
"Really? He said that?" And yet, she can imagine it. Beneath his rough exterior, she has an innate notion that Mondo is a friend she can trust. Ishimaru nods and smiles at her with unexpected warmth, and somehow it spills out.

"Ishimaru-kun... I didn't want to be like this. I wanted to be a strong boy, I did, but... I'm really a pathetic person. I just like being a girl. I just like pretty clothes and being treated gently. It's made me so happy. I want to become a strong person, but I don't want to let go of this freedom. And I can't keep on lying forever, because I know my body will change soon, but I don't know how to make it stop, and in my head I just feel it, I feel that I'm a girl, I know it's right-" She becomes aware of the tears budding in her eyes, and a hand gently holding hers.  
"If you think you're a girl, then you're a girl." It's the softest voice she's ever heard Ishimaru use. "You can be whoever you want. You don't have to be a boy to be strong. You're already a strong person, Chihiro."  
"You're a kind person... Kiyotaka."

She hugs him tightly around the middle and buries her face in his neck. He relaxes into the embrace and strokes her hair. "Ishimaru-kun," she says in a muffled voice, returning to formalities, "Would it be all right if I did some training with you and Oowada-kun? I would like that."  
"So would I."  
She smiles at him, wipes her eyes, and stands up. "If you'll excuse me," she says, pressing at her skirt, "Asahina-chan said that she would braid my hair."  
"It will look very pretty." Ishimaru stands up too and seems a thousand times more like himself as he exits with a salute. "Tomorrow morning after breakfast, Fujisaki-kun's training commences! Let's do our best!"


	2. Chapter 2

When she wakes up the next morning it takes her a moment to realise why she is smiling. She's all alone as she dresses, and her room is still melancholy and Hope's Peak is still despair-inducing, yet it's as if sunlight is flooding into her room, making a smile tug at her lips even with nobody to see it. She realises that this is the first time she'd dared to dream that things could last, that there could be people who knew the truth and yet it wouldn't change how they saw her.

She practically skips to breakfast. "Good morning, Fujisaki-kun!" Ishimaru greets immediately, and she struggles not to grin openly in response to his earnest cheer. As Naegi and Asahina pick up on the happy mood, breakfast chatter begins, and even Togami seems less irritated than usual, Sakura less stoic.  
Mondo ruffles her hair as he walks past to take his usual seat, and as he yells at Ishimaru to "get him some damn food in here" she sees for the first time that he's enjoying himself behind the gruffness.

"Oowada-kun, you are perfectly capable of preparing your own food!" Ishimaru chastises.  
"Yeah, but I know you did it already."  
"It is true... I have prepared three breakfast options this morning. A nutritious start to a day of hard work is key!" He smiles at her and she smiles back and it's the first time in a long time that she feels she has nothing to hide away and be ashamed of.  
"Chihiro-chan," Asahina nudges her, munching on a donut (ignoring Ishimaru's splutters of protest at this choice of breakfast) "Do you want to hang around with us today? I feel like you spend a lot of time in your room..."  
"Actually, I have plans," she daringly says. "I'm going to work out."  
Asahina looks surprised, but is hasty to reply "Well, Sakura and I were going to swim laps later on, I just didn't think you'd be interested..."  
"Ah, that's OK. I'm... training separately."  
Asahina is bewildered but doesn''t press. Kirigiri looks as though she's picked up on something but Chihiro feels wildly that she doesn't care if people find out. That maybe she's doing nothing wrong.

She doesn't think she's ever quite appreciated how much Ishimaru smiles and makes an effort to keep everyone's spirits up. As morose as Fukawa always looks, she feels that as long as they can sit around this table and laugh with each other, then in some small way they're beating Monobear at his own game. And she will beat Monobear - whatever it takes. That's why she has to become strong.

This time it's Ishimaru's turn to pull Mondo aside as he clatters his own dishes into the sink. "Today we're training with Fujisaki-kun, OK? We're going to help her become strong!"  
"What the hell? Maybe I had plans today!" Mondo halfheartedly complains.  
"Oowada-kun, through days of careful observation I have discovered that you never do anything constructive with your free time." If it wasn't Ishimaru, the observation would get him a beating, but the guy's too damn chipper for Mondo to get angry. "This way, you can both resume your no doubt rigorous exercise schedule, as well as help me in making amends to Fujisaki-kun."  
"'No doubt rigorous'?"  
"Well..." Ishimaru rubs the back of his head. "I had assumed, as Oowada-kun packs a very manly figure..."

As Mondo wrestles with how he feels about that comment, Chihiro pokes her head around the kitchen door. "Ishimaru-kun? Are we still on for today?" she says quietly, and damn it to hell, she's so cute Mondo might have to punch something.  
"Ah yes! My sincerest apologies for our dallying, Fujisaki-kun! Let us make haste!"

Ishimaru half-jogs up the stairs to the second floor, with Chihiro following him on light feet slightly furtively, and Mondo trailing behind them with a scowl - somehow he just didn't picture these two being the people he'd hang out with at Hope's Peak. "You better not be making this into some kind of workout, Ishimaru" he warns.  
"Workout! That's exactly what we're doing!" their leader sings, clapping. Mondo's face falls into his hands as Chihiro smiles and swings her arms.

They swipe their ID cards in turn at the door, and she gives the corridor one last look to make sure she's not being watched before doing the same. This is the first time she's been in the boy's changing room here. The poster on the wall makes her shrink slightly, its crude cleavage shot being a stark reminder of the laddish culture that had always so repelled her, but other than that the room is neutral; hardly yet used. Dumbbells and weights of various sizes line the walls, with fresh towels folded on the benches.

Ishimaru doesn't hesitate to begin stripping out of his uniform, making Chihiro shriek involuntarily.  
"What the hell are you doin'?" Mondo roars, red-faced.  
Ishimaru has shrugged off his jacket, revealing a rather unexpected six-pack, and is beginning to undo his trousers. "Mondo-kun, you cannot expect to work out in a leather jacket! As for me, I will not allow my bodily excretions to stain this pristine uniform when we start to break a sweat."  
"What, and the kid's supposed to get down to her undies as well, huh? Think about how weird you're being for once, you idiot!"  
"I shall not inhibit my training with the shackles of clothing!" Ishimaru proclaims as he hops around a corner in his underpants, returning from behind a row of lockers wearing only a white towel. "You may do as you choose! Of course, I would never ask that a lady undress... it is completely improper."

Chihiro isn't sure where to look, as every part of Ishimaru's exposed flesh looks rather frighteningly explicit. Mondo turns out once again to be her unexpected defender as he sighs and picks up a small dumbbell, testing it for weight in one hand, then holds it out to her. "So you wanna build up some muscle, is that right? Why don't you start with this?"  
She can hold it in both hands without a struggle, but when she tries to lift it one-handed she feels her whole body tipping sideways with the weight, and squeals as she nearly falls over. A strong pair of hands - Ishimaru's - steady her.

Mondo takes the weight and kneels in front of her. "Kiddo, you gotta hold out against the weight. Keep your feet steady and lift it. You ain't gonna let a tiny little dumbbell push you around, right?"  
"Right." She sounds less than convinced.  
"Fujisaki, you got to believe in yourself if you want to do anything that scares you."  
"What an excellent motto!" Ishimaru chimes in.  
"Shut up, I'm talkin' about the weights. You think me an' Ishimaru weren't little shrimps like you once? You think Sakura was born muscly? I know you've got the personality to put the effort in. So I'm gonna give you back this weight and you're gonna lift it way up in the air and make it your little bitch, right?"  
"Right!"  
And she does. She can. Her arm trembles, but she holds out and lifts for a full five seconds. As she holds it in her other hand, feeling accomplished, Ishimaru returns from the wall holding a monstrously huge dumbbell as if it were feather-light. He hands it to Mondo. "Remember, this is a workout for everybody! Fujisaki-kun, by the end of the next four hours, I expect you to be able to lift this dumbbell too!"

Four hours ago, she'd never have believed she could. But now, even though the room stinks of sweaty horribleness and she hasn't caught her breath in ages, she thinks she could do anything she puts her mind to. As Ishimaru does ridiculously tense jumping jacks with an occasional cry of "HUAH!" and Mondo bench-presses the big dumbbell freehandedly, puffing out hot breaths from the floor, Chihiro pauses from spotting him and says "Let me try."  
"What?"  
"I want to try lifting that dumbbell, Oowada-kun. Two-handed, but I just want to try."  
"Fujisaki, you're crazy! This thing's heavier than you!"  
"Ishimaru-kun said I could do it."  
"Ishimaru is way too fuckin' optimistic for his own good."  
"But I just want to try!"

He sets it on the ground and shakes his head. "Whatever you say."  
She clenches her small fists around the warm, sweat-slippy steel and pulls up, levering the weight with her legs like Ishimaru told her to, but with a grunt she admits defeat as she drops it after only about an inch.  
Mondo laughs. "Nice try, kiddo. In a few weeks, maybe."

"Hmmm. I wanted to be able to lift it." She doesn't mean to sound so morose, but the dumbbell had meant more than a dumbbell to her.  
"You will. You gotta give yourself a while to grow; you can't get all buff just from one workout no matter how much you train. And you did train a lot, Fujisaki. Now gimme a flex."  
She grins and complies. A tiny indent in her skinny upper arm hints at the potential for muscle. Mondo laughs, but it's friendly, not mean, as he flexes his gigantic arm in comparison.

Ishimaru finally hits his 200th jumping jack and rushes to join in, adding a pale bicep to the triangle. "Ishimaru-kun, you're so strong!" Chihiro exclaims.  
"As a hall monitor, it is my duty to possess physical strength and use it for good!"  
"Jeez, the kid's right. She could probably swing off that thing," Mondo observes, sounding genuinely impressed. Chihiro giggles and does, jumping up to hang on to Ishimaru's arm like a monkey. He gives a delighted laugh and lifts her off the ground and she kicks her small feet in the air. "Um, Ishimaru-kun's armpits smell horrible!"  
"You're no bunch of daisies yourself," Mondo says wryly.  
"Mondo-kun, you're sweatier than anyone."  
"Hehe. You wanna break a sweat, you gotta deal with the sweat." He envelopes her in a gross sticky hug and she squeals and hugs his arms back, as Ishimaru laughingly joins in from behind, making Mondo gasp. They sit down together in an awkward caterpillar of embracing limbs, Chihiro in Mondo's lap in Ishimaru's. Chihiro leans her head back against Mondo's chest. "You got nice fluffy hair, Fujisaki," he sighs. She moves her head side-to-side, laughing, dusting him.  
"Oowada-kun's hair stinks of gel," Ishimaru complains, and for that Mondo presses the back of his head into Ishimaru's face, earning him a swat.  
"Man, we're so gross right now." Mondo observes comfortably.

Chihiro suddenly sits up, tense, and for a moment Mondo's terrified they've overstepped their boundaries with the young girl. "I just realised I said I'd meet Yamada-kun in the library fifteen minutes ago! Sorry! Sorry! I have to go! It was really fun! Thank you!" she shouts as she gathers up her cardigan and swiftly exits.

Then, for a moment, it's just Mondo sitting in Ishimaru's lap against a wall in an empty changing room, and that's a little weird, but neither of them moves.  
"I think we made her very happy," says Ishimaru after a moment, his voice muffled by Mondo's hair.  
"Yeah." says Mondo, aware of Ishimaru's warm breath on the back of his neck. If the hall monitor leaned his head forward a little more, he'd be resting his head on Mondo's shoulder. "And she's gonna be toned as hell by the time we're done."  
"Yes. It's nice to think we're doing something helpful to somebody, even in this awful situation." Ishimaru's head bobs forward more, and he suppresses a yawn. His nose is now pressed against Mondo's skin.

Mondo doesn't know what to do, or what he's thinking, but his heartbeat is kicking up a storm and he finds himself sitting up and spinning around to face Ishimaru, who is still only wearing a towel, and they're both so sweaty and they stare at each other and then Mondo's kissing Ishimaru, gripping the back of his head and swearing into his mouth and Ishimaru's fiercely reciprocating. Mondo's sort of licking the sweat off Ishimaru's face and he's aware how fucking disgusting that is but Ishimaru doesn't seem to mind when Mondo thrusts his tongue into his mouth. They don't know what they're doing but neither of them cares.

Ishimaru has a firm grip on the small of Mondo's back and is unthinkingly pulling the gangster's body towards his, orienting the hardness in Mondo's jeans towards the rapidly developing counterpart in his towel. And then when they've rubbed up against each other once and the heat is getting to Ishimaru's head, he rapidly backs away and sort of. Panics. And.

OK, he punches Mondo in the crotch.

And then, as Mondo swears loudly and doubles over, he runs out of the changing room half-naked at the speed of lightning.

Celes' expression as he bolts past her in the corridor is priceless but he doesn't have time to think about that, he just sort of locks himself in his room and clutches his head in his hands and tries to work out if he did a bad thing or a really bad thing.

Half an hour later, having reached no satisfactory conclusion, he slinks back to the changing rooms to retrieve his uniform and hopefully to venture some sort of awkward apology, but the room is empty except for the dumbbells still strewn all over the floor. He dresses, tidies the room, and leans his head against the mirror and wonders if he's maybe ruined a thing that could have worked out really well.

He slopes back to his room, ready to avoid anyone for the rest of the day, but as he passes the library Chihiro exits, chatting brightly with Yamada about the various merits of dating sims, of which she has apparently played few. She pauses and looks at him and says, "Oh, I'll just talk to Ishimaru-kun for a moment," and pulls him inside the library before Yamada can respond.

Ishimaru stares at her. She's got that determined expression on her face that makes her look like an angry little baby animal and if he wasn't so very conflicted right now he'd want to -  
Oh, OK, she's got a fast grip on his arms and is leaning up and kissing him.  
It's brief and chaste and childish and it ends after a moment; she goes bright red and looks at him and he has no idea what emotion he's currently experiencing. He tries to muster up some sort of verbal response, but after five seconds Chihiro covers her mouth and looks close to tears and flees the room.

Ishimaru Kiyotaka sinks to the floor of the library as Monobear's Night Time announcement crackles over the intercom and, for once, following the rules is the last thing on his mind.


	3. Chapter 3

**This was my first attempt to write smut and I apologise.**

Chihiro's switched from Java to PROLOG, which is helping matters, but the AI won't quite come together. Alter Ego understands the commands it's given, but she feels she's simply hit a wall when it comes to trying to imprint her own logic paths into its programming without it coming down to stunted yes/no pathways. She sighs, scratches her arm, and thinks about Mondo instead.

OK, so if she's as honest as she can be, she's kind of crushing on him. But that's not quite the whole truth - she's crazy about him. She can't sort out her feelings. She hadn't meant for that to happen yesterday in the library; she had just meant to say something grateful, but something about Ishimaru's face - was it just her, or did his lips look a little rougher than they were earlier that day? - had compelled her into that stupid action.

So which of them does she like, then? And what sort of girl does it make her if the answer is both? From Ishimaru's reaction she guesses he's not interested, but if she moves her attentions to Mondo, is she... fast? Easy? Thinking about these words applied to herself slightly mortifies her. God, what is she thinking, assuming they would even like her back, anyway? They're nice boys, but they're older than her and... and why would they ever see her in a romantic way, when she's not even... Not even a proper girl, not soft and round in the right places, but bony and anxious and self-pitying, a liar in a skirt.

Breakfast is an uncomfortable affair. Mondo and Ishimaru must have had some falling out because neither of them is looking at the other, and it feels like everyone is looking at her again. She wonders what will happen today. She isn't sure she can face going to work out again when things are this tense and unspoken. She sees Fukawa staring at her and muttering something darkly, and her embarassment flares up. Asahina seems to have heard what Fukawa said, and is rebuking the girl's comment in a fierce whisper.

Sakura and Asahina. If she discounts the boys, they are the closest things she can call friends. She will seek their counsel, she decides.

Sakura seems to have picked up on her intention - the large wrestler is deceptively emotionally tuneful, and places a hand gently on Chihiro's arm once the kitchen begins to empty. "Fujisaki-san, is there something you wanted to discuss?" she asks quietly, eyes level with Chihiro's. Asahina stands by, nodding, and she feels profoundly safe.

"I, um... I guess I just feel like ever since that thing with Ishimaru-kun breaking my door, people have been... talking about me." She doesn't look up.  
Asahina nods seriously. "I can see why you might think that, Chihiro-chan, but don't let it get to you! People shouldn't say those kind of rude things without any basis."  
"What kind of... what kind of rude things?" she whispers fearfully.  
"Certain characters in our group seem to think you and Ishimaru-san are hiding some sort of inappropriate relationship," Sakura explains stiffly.  
"Well, Celes told everyone that she saw Ishimaru-kun running from a room you were in... half-naked. But, I mean, this is Ishimaru-kun! He takes his clothes off... a lot." Asahina laughs nervously and scratches the back of her head. "It's a little weird, actually..."

"W-we're not!" Chihiro is mortified. "We're not! Oh my goodness... I just... Look, could I maybe ask your opinions about something? I think you girls are really cute and smart and I... admire you a lot."  
"We admire you too, Fujisaki-san," smiles Sakura. "And nothing you say will leave this room."  
"I um... I'm really _not_ doing anything weird with Ishimaru-kun, but I... I, well, like him. You know, I _like_ him. But I... I like Oowada-kun as well. I like them both... I like them both an awful lot. I really don't think I could decide who I like better." Her chin hitches. "What kind of girl does that make me?"

Two strong pairs of arms are wrapping around her from either side as she tries not to start crying _again_. "Chihiro-chan!" Asahina cries. "You don't have to feel bad about liking people! It's a good thing!"  
"Nobody has any right to call you names," affirms Sakura seriously. "If you want to have a relationship with someone, there is nothing wrong with that."  
"But... girls shouldn't be like that. We should be... coy, right? Not throwing ourselves at every guy who's... nice to us."  
"Women do not have to act in any sort of way dictated by men!" booms Sakura. "They have no right to put labels on your mannerisms, Fujisaki-san! Be proud of who you are and who you like!"  
"Do you... have anyone you like, Oogami-san?"  
"I... I, too, have a maiden's heart," Sakura stammers. Asahina's arm reaches around her broad shoulders, and they exchange a brief warm look.  
"Ah." Chihiro understands. "I... thank you very much for your advice. I'm sorry for being so silly."  
"Hey, we girls have to have each other's backs!" Asahina tells her confidently, punching her lightly on the arm. "Now you just tell us if either of those boys hurts you."  
"They will be punished," Sakura intones under her breath, and Chihiro giggles slightly nervously as she exits the room and changes into clothes better suited for a workout (her uniform was drenched with sweat yesterday). She's going to the changing rooms and she'll work out whether Ishimaru turns up or not. She doesn't need his validation. All she needs is her own happiness.

Ishimaru doesn't turn up.  
"I, uh... I mighta... fucked up yesterday," Mondo admits between breaths as the two of them do pushups. "With... Ishimaru. After you left... things were... weird."  
She collapses after the 20th pushup, pressing her exhausted body against the soothing cool tiles of the changing room floor. "I think I may be accountable, actually. I'm sorry, Mondo-kun. I feel bad; I... made a mistake."  
He lifts one hand and pauses mid-pushup, looks at her.  
"You called me Mondo."  
She squeaks. "I- I didn't mean to! Is that all right?"  
"Yeah, that's..." He's staring weirdly at her as she lies on her side, and, as if in a trance, reaches out to brush a few stray hairs out of her face. His fingers linger, millimetres away from her cheek, and then she's sitting up and saying "I like you very much, Mondo-kun," and he's mumbling "Shit... I like you too, kiddo," but neither of them really finishes their sentences before their arms are around each other's necks and their mouths meet.  
It's not like with Ishimaru for either of them. This kiss is more powerful than the peck she planted on Ishimaru yesterday - it gets a response, for one thing; they move their lips in tandem with the other's breathing. He, too, feels different with Chihiro - what had happened with Ishimaru had been about sex, pure and simple, two hormonal teenagers in close proximity. That's why he'd been walking on glass around the kid, terrified of perverting her admiration for her. But this is - soft, and sweet, and not in a rush to move anywhere else. It's... romantic. Shit, he's got so many fluffy feelings rising up in his chest, he's gonna need to punch a bear to feel manly again.

They break apart and both look flushed and smile at each other and Chihiro just stays in Mondo's arms for a moment, holding him tightly. He's still got his ridiculous jacket on, and smells like leather and sweat and engine oil.  
"I kissed Ishimaru." he blurts.  
"So did I."  
"...What?"  
"Ummmm. In the library, I..."  
"We kissed in the changing rooms after you left." He looks slightly shellshocked.  
"Oh! That's why he was so, um... weirded out."  
"Damn. Uh." He stands up and starts pacing (She remains on the floor, still rather dizzy with delight even as this problem unfolds). "Well, I mean... it's like. I like you. But I like him too. I... I like both of you in different ways, but like, it's both in a... you know, in that kind of way... shit, uh-"  
"No, I think I know what you mean..." she admits. "I... I like you both too."  
"Well damn." He sits down on a bench and half-jokingly says "Shit, if only Ishimaru felt the same way about both of us things'd be fuckin' peachy."  
"Could such an arrangement really work?" Chihiro's doubtful as she sits up and starts lifting weights again.

"I don't see why it couldn't," says an uncharacteristically small voice and they both look up to the doorway, Chihiro's heart pacing like a frightened rabbit, but it is only Ishimaru, looking rather bashful and unsure. "I... I meant to announce myself, but the two of you were... it was a somewhat inopportune time. S-sorry for my lateness!"  
"Oh. Wow." Mondo can't meet his eyes, and Chihiro wants nothing better than to bury her face in her skirts.  
"I... I wanted to apologise to both of you," Ishimaru mutters. "I was very rude to you each in turn, but it was because... well, I feel the same way. I... I like both of you very much. So... so if it's all right!"  
He walks up stiffly and presents first Mondo and then Chihiro a small item; trinkets from the Monobear Gacha dispenser.  
In its usual way, it seems to have produced items with no concievable relevance to any but the smallest niche of high school students, so Mondo realises Ishimaru must have fed a lot of coins in to get these two things just for them - his is a miniature replica of a classic motorcycle, and Chihiro's is a tiny can of strawberry scented perfume.

"Oh, Ishimaru-kun, this is lovely," Chihiro whispers.  
"That's really... cool of you. Bro. Man. Guy." Yeah, Mondo's gonna need to punch about 100 bears.  
"I wanted to express my... my liking to you both, and um..." He seems so reluctant to say it that Chihiro's sure he's about to come out with something desperately personal, but finally he stutters "Y-you may both call me Kiyotaka! If you... If you like!"  
Mondo blinks and then shakes his head. "I can't, it's too weird. You're staying Ishimaru."  
"Um. Me too," Chihiro giggles, and to be honest Ishimaru looks rather relieved.

The door slams open and Chihiro leaps behind a stack of lockers, terrified, as someone else enters the boys' changing room - a thing she'd begun to forget could even happen. Of all the unlikely people, the voice she hears is Yamada's.  
"Ah... My friends... You couldn't tell me where to locate Chihiro Fujisaki-dono, could you? Only... she said she was working on a female AI, and I had a few... suggestions... But I can't find her anywhere."  
"She's out!" Mondo squeaks at the same time as Ishimaru asserts "She's gone!"  
"W-what?! Gone from Hope's Peak?!"  
"Ummmm, no, she's... shit, I don't know, fuck... Just get outta here, will ya? We don't know, I said!" Mondo's gone bright red.  
Chihiro dares to peek around the corner and sees her boyfriends still in close proximity to each other, with Mondo leaning against the wall and Ishimaru standing in front, and Yamada seems to have taken this in too.  
"Ahhhh..." He imparts wisely. "I see... roses! I see roses everywhere!"  
"You... you fuckin' what?"  
"_The love that dare not speak its name!_ Oh, I see... I will leave you gentlemen alone." Yamada grins, and before either of them can cease stuttering he has left.

Mondo wipes his forehead. "That was close."  
"I'd better go," says Chihiro anxiously, "Before that happens again. We should really... meet up in less public places, maybe. If we're going to do things that aren't exercise." She goes bright red. "Besides, Yamada-kun's waiting."  
"Fujisaki-kun, you don't have to indulge his requests!" Ishimaru argues. _I want you to stay_, she hears.  
She shrugs. "I really... don't mind. I have programming to do. I'd really better go. But let's, um... let's do something together!" _That was too close for comfort and I don't feel safe in here right now, I need to go,_ she tries to communicate, and she thinks it's understood.

"Good training today, kiddo," Mondo says as she exits, although honestly they got little done. As the door draws to a close, their aloneness reflects their positions from yesterday afternoon.  
"W-well, I'd better pack up this shit," Mondo starts to say, but Ishimaru has a very strange look in his eyes, and for a moment Mondo thinks the hall monitor might need to take a whiz or something, but then Ishimaru closes the distance between them with two steps and boldly puts a hand on a part of Mondo's anatomy that suggests he was actually attempting to look sultry.

"Um." Mondo stammers. Ishimaru seems unable to meet his eyes, and Mondo doesn't know what to do with his hands, or... anything. Should he... reciprocate? _Should he touch the butt?_  
"I wasn't very nice to... to Mr. Little Mondo-kun yesterday," says Ishimaru, sounding like a wooden actor reading from a script.  
"H-His name isn't Little Mondo!"  
"I thought I should... make up for it."  
Ishimaru's kneeling down and _shit shit shit shit shit what does Mondo do._ Not that his dick isn't mighty appreciative of the scenario, but the rest of his body seems to have shut off entirely. "Are you... um... Are you sure you wanna do... this?" he manages to articulate.  
"W-well... Yes, I've been... I mean, if Oowada-kun wants to, I've been... thinking about it. Quite a lot. All day, actually."  
"You fucking..." The sex-driven part of his mind supplies a degrading slur immediately, but this is _Ishimaru_. "W-well, go for it." He's messed around a little with girls before, mainly just touching their boobs, and he always managed to sound cool throughout so why is he now _Holy shit Ishimaru is unzipping his trousers. With. His. Teeth._  
The zipper sticks halfway down. "This is more difficult than I anticipated," Ishimaru admits, tugging at it like a terrier in a distinctly unsexy fashion.  
"J-just do it with your hands, dude," Mondo suggests, and places his hand in Ishimaru's hair, because in pornos they tend to do that. But gripping it doesn't seem right, and what else can he do? Pet it? Jesus fuck he's way too hard to think about this right now and _there is a hand on Little Mondo there is another person's hand on his own personal penis._ This is so scary and so very nice.

Ishimaru isn't entirely sure how to approach the thing in his hand. He... he _likes_ holding it, and he wants to do _something_ with it, but... kiss it? Lick it? Pretend like it's an ice lolly and just... just go nuts? Yeah, he's going for the third option.  
This is the first penis he's seen up close other than his own - even on that one occasion he dared to look up internet porn, he basically averted his eyes from the actual details. He can't really tell if it's bigger or smaller than his, but it does seem very intimidating. And. Hypnotically sphygmodic, frankly. Wait, oh yeah, he's meant to be doing stuff to the dick.

He licks a stripe up it from the base to the tip and Mondo claps his hands over his mouth. Ishimaru isn't sure about the taste - it's a little salty but mostly nothing. The texture's... well, soft. He gently attempts to put his mouth around it, thinking with the ice lolly mentality, but then Mondo hisses "Teeth!" and he realises it's not quite the same. The invasion poking at the back of his mouth is kind of uncomfortable, and there's pretty much no way he is gonna get it down his throat, so he tries to just move his lips and tongue around and hope for the best.  
It isn't so much what he's doing as Mondo's reaction - muffled whimpers and an increasingly tight grip in his hair (a little painful, but an improvement from the weird formal head-pat he was getting before) - that gets his own dick twitching, and he initially suppresses the urge to press his spare left hand to his own crotch before realising he literally has Mondo's penis in his mouth, he can probably do what he wants.

Mondo focuses all his bodily strength on trying not to jerk his dick forward into Ishimaru's throat, because holy shit, this isn't bad at all but a man has _instincts_. He vaguely sees Ishimaru pawing at the crotch of his white uniform; rather than attempting to actually jerk it, his boyfriend seems to be just frotting roughly against his own palm, and it's the thought of Ishimaru staining the pristine white that makes him pull away from Ishimaru with a gasp and hastily come into his own fist.  
Ishimaru gasps and coughs a little as Mondo suddenly pulls out, but he's too close himself to say anything articulate so he just grabs Mondo's stained hand, guides it vaguely towards his own hardness and almost immediately afterwards gives a strangled cry as he jizzes in his own pants.

"That was awesome," Mondo breathes.  
"I... concur," Ishimaru gasps. "That was... H-having Mondo-kun's manhood in my own grasp..."  
"Pretty fuckin' gay, dude," Mondo mumbles and then bursts into hysterical giggles. His boxers are around his knees and there's a guy on the floor who just gave him a BJ. "Pretty fuckin' gay."


	4. Chapter 4

He's not freaking out, he's just...  
Yeah, he's freaking out.

Ishimaru doesn't want to be the type of man who acts impulsively and then regrets it, so he tends to justify every decision by telling himself he absolutely wanted to do it. This, though, is a little harder. What did he do yesterday what will his parents think if they knew their little boy was...

His parents are dead.

Probably.

He lies on his bed with one boot on, half-laced, the other on the floor. How did he get here? How did this end up being his life?

Like, he'd always known that he enjoyed the rugged physique of other men, but he always justified that as being in a Good and Healthy spirit, rather than...  
He doesn't want to be that one guy. That one guy who gets on his knees for a sleazy biker in a changing room, not because he was forced to, but because he wanted to.

Okay, okay, he needs to calm down. He's in a relationship. There's nothing wrong with that. He's in a relationship. A three-way relationship. With a delinquent and a little girl. He knows she's fifteen, but doesn't she seem tinier, more innocent... how could he even think of corrupting her?

Today he is going to clean his act up. They are going to Talk About Feelings and Boundaries. There needs to be some sort of order to this, he can't just keep going around having weird encounters with the two of them at random.

As if on cue, a knock comes at his bedroom door, and he realises with a shriek of alarm that he was supposed to be at the breakfast meeting one minute and thirty-two seconds ago THAT'S PRACTICALLY TWO MINUTES! As he opens the door hastily, barking "I cannot apologise enough-" he comes face to face with Mondo - and, when a little face pokes over his back, revealing her apparently willing mode of transport, Chihiro.  
"You ain't got nothin' to apologise for," Mondo grins, looking pleased as punch.  
"Ah. My friends." They aren't exactly his friends.  
"Ishimaru-kun, you were almost late for breakfast! We were worried!" Chihiro jumps down from Mondo's piggyback to hug him. He breathes in the smell of her hair, weirdly soothing, before continuing.

"I thought we should talk about our... arrangement. Because. I mean." Wait, does Chihiro know? Oh christ, what if Chihiro doesn't know and would be devastated to find out they did such lewd things!  
"I don't want to have to miss out when you two are... doing manly things." She finishes his sentence for him.  
"Manly things..."  
"I told her you gave me a BJ, dude. Hope you don't mind."  
"I... don't." He's a little horrified. "But um. Yes. I have no wish to exclude Fujisaki-kun from our... our... liaison." Mondo raises his eyebrows at the choice of word, and Ishimaru has to say he's impressed the guy actually knows the definition of liaison. "But I think we should... set a few rules in place."

"Fuckin' rules," Mondo whines.  
"All healthy relationships need guidelines," Ishimaru warns sternly, and somewhat surprisingly, Chihiro nods in agreement. "So... is there anything that either of you would be uncomfortable with?"  
"I..." Chihiro begins after a pause. "I mean... I know I don't have the... the body of a girl, but... I don't want to be treated like a boy. I mean. In touching. And stuff." She's bright red.  
"Sweetheart, you're gonna need to be more specific," Mondo says gently. Ishimaru raises an eyebrow and mouths sweetheart?, at which Mondo goes purple and stutters something indistinct.  
"I don't wanna say rude stuff first," Chihiro mumbles. "Someone else start."  
"All right!" Ishimaru takes the lead. "Let's go for it! Let's open our hearts to each other as youths! Let's..."  
"Just say something about sex, dammit." Oh, so he doesn't get to be sweetheart.  
"I! I like... if someone else... takes control. I... think that I enjoy being talked down to." He can't meet their eyes. "Now someone else go!"  
Mondo smiles. "Uhh, I don't know. I don't really have that many... kinks or anything, but I guess I'd be willing to accommodate anyone else's?" He scratches the back of his neck. "There isn't much that bothers me. Sorry, it's kinda boring."  
Chihiro finally speaks up, softly but clearly. "Pretend I'm a girl," she whispers. "Just pretend I have a girl's anatomy. Pretend it's there."  
She looks upset. "Fujisaki-kun, you do have a girl's anatomy!" Ishimaru argues fiercely. "You're a girl, and it's your anatomy, so - it's basic logic!"  
"What he said." Mondo nods. "But we'll be sure to take it into account."

"So." Ishimaru clears his throat. "We should think of other places to... to meet up. Not on school public property. The rules of the self-respecting institution forbid it."

"We're... in a private room now," Chihiro suggests in a small voice. She's blushing so much he just wants to kiss it out of her.  
"But breakfast-"  
Mondo closes the door.  
"Is the most important meal-"  
Chihiro's slim finger meets his chest and she pushes him down on the bed with no resistance, feather-light. They grin down at him.  
"...Breakfast can wait."

"I think we should investigate," Naegi argues. "The longer we leave them alone, the longer something bad could happen! Ishimaru-kun would never skip breakfast."  
"I would wait," Kirigiri advises opaquely. "I think they're fine."  
"But what could those three be doing that's more important than breakfast meetings are to Ishimaru-kun?"  
"I'm going to predict it..." Hagakure ventures nervously. "Hmmmmm..." He enters a rather contrived-looking trance for a maximum of fifteen seconds, then his eyes go wide. "Oh my goodness... This kind of material should NOT be repeated at the table!"

Yamada chuckles darkly and Aoi and Sakura exchange a pointed look. Naegi huffs, alone in defending the absentees. "Hagakure, don't suggest things like that!"  
"You don't understand. I already predicted today that my shoes would be missing and that I would meet a turtle when I stepped out of my room, and both of those were wrong. That means this one's gotta be right! 30% accuracy!"  
"I'm really pretty sure that's not how it works," Naegi argues weakly, but oddly, nobody looks convinced, and if he's not mistaken, Kirigiri is hiding a rare smirk.


	5. Chapter 5

**More smut. I'm so sorry. Free him.**

Mondo's not entirely sure how he ended up here.

So he and Ishimaru had a little falling out, so what. They're very different guys, it's natural! But uh... Somehow this turned into...

Yeah, it's half past two in the morning, and he's fully clothed in a sauna.

"Gettin' a little uncomfortable yet, huh?"  
"Not in the slightest, Mondo-kun! I could do this all night!"

Ishimaru laughs, but he's as red as a baboon. Mondo really wants to take his jacket off - that, or grate some cheese on that goddamn set of abs the other guy's flaunting - but he won't lose.

"Still... Up for... Training tomorrow... With Chihiro-san?"  
"Of course... Every day... Is a day for exercise..."  
"This can't be... Good for that rule-abiding mindset of yours..."  
"Hah...! A bet is a bet... A promise is a promise..."

"Yeah." And although he's sweating buckets, a chill runs through Mondo's veins. "A man's promise is what's most important."

They fall into silence.

At 3AM he starts to tell Ishimaru about Daiya, about everything. He just talks. Ishimaru just listens.

By 4AM, he knows about Ishimaru's family disgrace. They talk endlessly about Chihiro, how strangely, unreally perfect she is, how scared Mondo is of hurting her, how much Ishimaru wants to shield her from the bad things in this world.

By 5AM they're giddy, dizzy with the heat, and they're brothers (and yeah, they made out a little, but the heat reminded them why that was a bad idea pretty quickly).

At 6AM talk, as it always does, has turned to sex. Mondo listens to Ishimaru say the sentence "I really just want to be degraded, aniki. I'd do anything, probably. I'd lick the mud from your shoes!" and becomes hysterically aware that this is his life, not to mention somewhat frustrated in his nethers.

Monobear's voice drones over the intercom and Mondo lifts his drooping head. His pompadour is sagging like a limp burrito, and Ishimaru's black hair is slick against his scalp, and they realise they did it. They both kept their promises.

He reaches for the door handle to finally leave the death trap that has probably permanently damaged both their brains, but he pauses.  
"Let's make another promise, aniki."  
"What, aniki?"  
"Let's promise to make her happy and protect her from harm."  
Ishimaru smiles. "I promise."

Chihiro's the first to reach the cafeteria, with her sports kit slung over her back, clean and fresh after a shower and a good night's sleep, ready for a productive day.  
...However, when she sees Ishimaru and Mondo both plastered in sweat, slumped over the dining table with sleepless eyes like they've seen hell itself, she guesses there might not be much training done.  
"Sorry, kiddo." says Mondo weakly. "We might not be up to today." His face is exhausted, but that thousand-year stare continues.  
"We have failed you as mentors." Ishimaru sounds like he's about to cry, head down in the table. And yet, they both seem... happy.  
"...I'm going to get you both a glass of water," she decides hastily. They look like they need it.

As the remaining students mull into the dining room, they've already all eaten a lion's share and her boys are looking slightly less like the crawling undead. She's going to make sure they're both thoroughly rested tonight.  
"So if we're not up to training today, what else can we do...?"  
"I have a few ideas," says Ishimaru quickly, and Mondo hoarsely agrees "Me too."  
She sees the look in their eyes, and finds she can hardly wait for breakfast to end.

It's a few hours later, when they are both basically sitting on a fully naked Ishimaru (she peppering small kisses on his neck, he doing something to the hall monitor's behind that is making him buck and yelp occasionally) that Chihiro realises she's hard.

It's not a new feeling, but it's never been one she's comfortable with. Her - she doesn't know what to call it, clit doesn't seem right when it's so clearly _not_, but the accurate words are so male and loaded and terrifying - her _thing_ presses warm and insistent against her panties, and she wonders whether Ishimaru can feel it.

His continuing whimpers are no indication. Chihiro anxiously has to ask "Are you still OK, Ishimaru-san?", even though it's breaking the characters they had taken on.  
"_Yes_," he breathes, and with a strangled cry, comes.

Mondo's a physical man, he won't be one to deny it. He sees a sight like the one before him - Ishimaru a quivering, spent mess facedown on the bed, and Chihiro's upskirt view riding high in front of his face - and the blood rushes straight to his dick. Doing things with his mouth to Ishimaru was enjoyable, but that part of his anatomy won't go away. As he looks up, he sees a certain tenseness in Chihiro.

"Fujisaki, you - all right?"  
"Y-yeah, I..." She turns to face him and flushes, and he sees it, the tiny dent in her skirt, and _fuck_ if that isn't kinda hot. "Mondo-kun... If you could please..." She bites her lip. "I-I'm sorry, I don't even know what I want. If you could just..."

"Communication is key!" Ishimaru pipes up. Mondo takes the initiative to do what Ishimaru made it clear he wants, and puts his mouth close to the guy's ear, huskily growling "Nobody asked you, trash.", which causes Chihiro to giggle and Mondo to look slightly embarrassed - Ishimaru seems to be a natural at being a kinky fucker, but they're both still getting used to it.

But they take the advice to heart as they sit on the bed, the scenario over, Ishimaru still naked and face down, enjoying his fantasy, and Mondo and Chihiro both still fully clothed with bulges in their underwear that need to be taken care of.  
"You want me to... do... oral?" Mondo asks stiffly. It's embarrassing to actually say it, but Ishimaru's right, they have to let each other know what exactly they mean to avoid anyone getting uncomfortable.  
"N-no, I don't think..."  
"Anal?"  
She goes scarlet. "No!"  
"OK, that's on the definitely-not list, duly noted. Uh..."

"If you could just..."  
Not knowing what to call it, she just unzips his trousers with her tiny, dextrous fingers, shifts forward so that her thighs meet his waist as she sits on his lap, and, lifting her skirt, trembling slightly, guides his slick member between her thighs. Not towards what should be there; not towards anything, but she doesn't need to take down her panties for his hesitant movement to make her gasp.

She's explored her body before, but the anatomy she found herself endowed with didn't hold much interest. Being touched in the vague space between her legs, though, even if she has to pretend what is there is not - she shivers and bucks into Mondo responsively, enthusiastically.

He makes a quiet grunting noise as he fucks her thighs and his face is twisted intensely but his hands on her shoulders are so gentle, barely there. Ishimaru's sat up and is playing with her hair sweetly, still buck naked, and it's weird, isn't it? But as she spills into her panties with an almost-silent sigh, she knows. This is what she wants.


	6. Chapter 6

**Brief misgendering warning. Also I know fuck all about programming, so ignore if it makes no sense.**

...

comb_rep(0,_,[]).  
comb_rep(N,[X|T],[X|RComb]):-N0,N1 is N-1,comb_rep(N1,[X|T],RComb).  
comb_rep(N,[_|T],RComb):-N0,comb_rep(N,T,RComb).

She can see why people think coding is boring or hard. Maybe if she had struggled with maths more, she'd see it that way too. But as it is, the mental challenges it provides her with are more than enough to keep her buzzing brain occupied. Her current circumstances, too - working inside this cramped locker, with one eye looking out for Monobear, on this tragically ill-equipped old laptop without even any internet connection - well, if she allows herself to be complacent inside her head, it would be too much of a challenge for anyone else but her. As it is, she hesitates to feel she's proud of what she's achieved with Alter Ego.

And now for the moment she's been waiting for. The first test run of her programme.

Her own face flickers onto the screen. The photographic data she had access to was limited to the school-issue photo files containing the student photos that were stored on this battered old laptop (strange - if it was so old, why did it contain pictures of this year's class? And come to that, why did it seem to be a modern model?). Therefore, she can only use her own face to represent the programme that is, after all, a reflection of herself.

She's poured her soul into this little machine. Strange, but that's sort of her deal.

"Hello" she types.  
"Hello, Master." it responds cheerfully.

She winces. She forgot she'd done that. She hastily exits and modifies the greeting the AI gives. A small change, but it's important.

"Hello, Alter Ego."

"Hello, Mistress."

"How are you?"

"I'm feeling well today."

"You're not sick?"

"No. I'm feeling well today."

"What if I asked "How are you?" tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow, my answer to that question would be "I'm feeling well today.""

She wants to hit it. Not convincingly sentient in the least! How can something she's worked so hard on be so rudimentary? Are her talents losing their sharpness? Is she too - too _distracted_?  
Involuntarily, her thoughts fly to Ishimaru-kun and Mondo-kun. As they tend to do, lately.

"Upupupu. Hello, Miss Chihiro. Or should I say Mister?"  
She starts and slams the locker shut. The bear stands confrontationally before her. D-Damn it, he must have noticed she was hidden from his cameras' view.

"N-no," she squeaks.

"Really? Because I've seen the scandalous behaviour that goes on behind locked doors in _your_ room! Did you think I wouldn't notice? What inappropriate behaviour this is for young students! And now you're lurking in the locker rooms... Very suspicious! _Bear_y suspicious!"

"I was going to do some training," she attempts. "Getting my equipment out..."

"Training? Without your guard dogs? Hah! I've seen enough of you 'getting your equipment out' over the past few days. Yeesh, high school students really are raging balls of hormones! I wonder how all your other classmates would react if they knew what you were getting up to?"

"Oh," and suddenly, it comes out without her quite knowing why, or how, or from which part of her frail interior this courage sprang. "Shut up."

The bear gives a mock-shriek, holding his paws up to his face in exaggerated shock, and then bounces out of sight.

Chihiro shakes, closes the laptop, and smiles. Did she really just... stand up to him?

She's proud of herself, but also a little scared. The fact he didn't react seems to warn that her punishment for insolence will come later, in a different form.

Although breakfast is the only official gathering the students have together, dinnertime is generally coincidal with each other's habits, and so the majority of Hope's Peak's remaning population - the only absentees being the usual, Fukawa and Togami - drape themselves over tables in the cafeteria, settling down to meals of steamed rice or instant ramen (or, in Aoi's case, a plate of fourteen donuts and a mug of tea). It's been more than a week since the bloody day when Maizono, Enoshima and Leon were untimely ripped from them, and although a week is hardly time to make up for the loss of friends, the atmosphere among them has settled somewhat, as friendships begin to form and mistrust eases away more and more.

Of course, Monobear won't stand for this for long. Chihiro finds herself not upset but unsurprised when he bounces, as always, out of thin air and tells them another motive is coming up.

"You ain't fooling anyone, bear," Mondo tells him crassly. "Only reason Maizono and Kuwata tried it last time was 'cause they didn't know how the school trial worked. None of us is gonna kill anyone now, no matter what."

"Upupupu, don't be so sure," Monobear cackles.

This time it's less a motive, more a threat. If nobody kills in three days, supposedy, all their darkest secrets will be revealed.

The reaction around the dinner table's obvious and immediate, but Chihiro finds she rises above it. Although her heart races at the thought of all these people knowing about her, she finds it's not the killer shock that it would have been at the beginning of her school life. No, she doesn't want people to know. But if they did, it wouldn't be the end of her world.

Before anyone can speak - most faces are sweating as they clearly attempt to contemplate what exactly is likely to be said about them - she stands up. Her height barely makes a mark above most people's sitting positions, but the chair's screech is noticeable.

"Mondo-kun? Ishimaru-kun? Would you come with me?" she says politely.

"Sure, kiddo," Mondo replies, a little bewildered, as Ishimaru asserts "Certainly!" and they follow her out into the corridor.

"'_Mondo_-kun?'" Celes smirks into her tea as they leave.

"Just what the heck is going on with those three?" Naegi mutters, seemingly to himself.


	7. Chapter 7

**Brief misgendering again. **

"And here I thought you just wanted to take a bath," says Mondo in astonishment, peering into the secluded locker.

"This is a feat of technology that will change the world, Chi-chan!" Ishimaru nearly yells, pushing Mondo's head out of the way to get a better look.

"Her name's Alter Ego. I'm currently having her analyse the files that are stored on this laptop, but the encryption is pretty strong, so it'll take a while," she explains, unable to stop a small smile. "But you can talk to her if you want. You just have to type what you want to say."

She watches as Mondo's thick fingers hesitate over the keys, unused to interaction with computers. Her mirror image smiles out from the screen, blinking at natural intervals, waiting for input.

Finally, he decides on 'hi alter ego' for a greeting.

"Hello, Mondo-kun!" the computer chirps back. "Good evening, Ishimaru-kun, Mistress."

"Mistress?" Ishimaru raises an eyebrow.  
"Yamada's gonna love this," Mondo mutters. He then pauses and turns to her. "Uh... assumin' you are planning on showing it to all the others. I mean, once she's analysed the files or whatever."

"Yeah, I'm planning on it. Go on, say something else to her."

'how ar you holdin up'

The face on the computer screen frowns, pauses a moment for processing, then says "Sorry, I don't understand."

"It's because you can't spell for peanuts," says Ishimaru, shoving him aside, "Let me type."

"Maybe I should have programmed her to account for non-conventional spelling," Chihiro frowns.

"Nah, don't worry about it." He scratches his neck and looks rather embarrassed. "Actually, I never really learned much about writin', so - I was just sorta winging it. Can't spell for shit, to be honest."

"We should teach you!" she realises. "You two are helping me get strong, so Ishimaru and I should help you improve your writing!"

"Excellent idea!" Ishimaru looks up from the lengthly dialogue he appears to be having with Alter Ego and claps his hands together. "Although I fear I'm now left out as the only one not being taught something. Hmm, well, I do have a great deal of worldly knowledge!"

"We could teach you not to be a total ass," Mondo suggests, putting him in a headlock, and Chihiro can't help but fall to the floor giggling.

She can't help but wonder how long this happiness will last.

Three days come and they go, and although tension is rising in some corners - Fukawa, in particular, seems to be distressed about something - murder doesn't appear to be on the cards. Monobear's irritation with this is extremely apparent; he appears far more frequently than usual, ranting about nonsense and trying to instigate trouble.

Finally, she wakes one morning in her room, easily pushing the heavy weight of Ishimaru's slumbering head off her lap, and becomes aware that the small envelope she had left on her table is gone.

Ah. So that time has come.

She hastily wakes both boys, shaking them with arms that are becoming less and less easily fatigued. The three of them hurriedly dress and exit, passing Togami in the hallway, who doesn't seem at all surprised to see the three of them come out of the same bedroom.

"Togami-kun," Ishimaru broaches, "I'm surprised to see you on your way to the breakfast meeting!"

"Nothing like that." He snorts. "It's the day of the secrets. I want to be around to see this."

Mondo gives her a worried glance sideways, biting his lip.

"Don't worry," she tells him easily. "I don't mind if people find out now. I know you two will protect me."

"Them biceps you got going on can protect themselves," he laughs. "You'll be brawling Oogami soon enough. But, uh..." The smile fades. "I'm a little worried about my damn envelope. Once you guys find out, it might... you might change your opinion of me."

She pats his hand as they walk into the dining hall together, and Ishimaru claps him on the back from the left. "We're with you," he assures Mondo.

"It's goNNA Be okay," she squeaks at him.  
Pauses.  
Reaches a hand to her throat.

What just... happened?

"My... voice is breaking." It's soft as a whisper, and she can make it come out meek and girlish this time.  
...How long will that last?

The security of her prepubescent state has gotten her far enough in combatting dysphoria, but now she realises with a lurching stomach that those halcyon days are on their way out.

Mondo and Ishimaru stop walking and regard her with expressions combining worry and pity, and she can't _stand_ those looks from them. In their eyes, she's still weak.

She rushes on ahead, blinking back tears, leaving them hand in hand in the corridor, bereaved and confused.

The dining hall is no better. Under the harsh white lights, the papers spread out on the table, each with a blunt message in large print, are too horribly apparent, and the eyes of its other occupants are all on her.

"Chihiro's a boy?"  
Naegi's mouth shapes the words and she feels as if a weight of thirty tons hits her all at once.

How could she ever think she would be able to face this?

She is too afraid to speak in case her vocal cords betray her again; she cannot even deny it, what good would it do? They'll know soon enough. _Out, damned testosterone! out, I say!_

"No, she's not."

The voice is clear and strong.

"She's a girl."

They come up behind her like two tall pillars on whose weight she can collapse, the delinquent and the model student.

"She says she's a girl, so she's a girl," Ishimaru asserts again loudly, in case it didn't reach anyone's ears.

"And if anyone gives her any shit about it, she'll give them what for." Mondo threatens. He doesn't say _we'll_ or _I'll_. He says that she'll defend herself.

She begins to cry like a baby and falls back into their supportive arms. "Sorry," she sniffles, wiping tears, "I'm sorry."

Looking up at the congregated students, they are still being met with wide eyes, but then Kirigiri gives a half-smile and turns back to the paper-laden breakfast table. "More importantly," she announces, as if this was a trivial distraction hardly worth mentioning, "There's troubling news about Fukawa."

Conversation resumes and she is no longer the topic.

The student life of mutual killing goes on.

**Thanks for reading! This was my first multichap story and I became less and less happy with it as I went on, plus I had no plan (don't do that) so I kinda ended it in a rush, but nonetheless, people seemed to like it. **


End file.
